Global Marketing Research

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4 Steps To Help You Begin Social Media Marketing

1. Demonstrate a Reliable Internet Presence

If you are reliable and responsible, many people will spread the good word about you and your product or whatever it is you do online. Social networking is much like being at a party and letting people get to know you. Your business traffic will start to flow once you assume a credible and trusted voice in the social media arena. If you treat social media as a party and act as you would at a party without the drinking you should be fine. Don't start selling as soon as you walk through the door of Twitter or Facebook...why you ask? Because nobody knows who the heck you are. You will need to be more interesting, personal, genuine and active with your customers than traditional advertising. Get to know them and what they want and let them know you and what you have to offer.

2. Start Blogging and Deliver Content, Content, Content

Instead of pushing sales and product information messages the way most people would with traditional advertising, give good content for your target audience. Let them gain some knowledge about your industry and about how knowledgeable you are about your industry through your posting. You will have to to modify your merchandising mentality about how trust works in the social mediasphere. Companies that simply push sales messages just won't last in the social mediasphere, people won't like you and will tell others that won't like you as well. If you aren't liked you won't make any money in this arena and you'll be wasting a good amount of time to boot. You're going to need a blog to further interact with current and future customers. Through your blog you can deliver as much reliable and trustworthy content as you want. Be sure your blog is as informative, interesting, current and reliable as possible. Post at least 4 times a week or people won't want to come back to your blog...I had to find that out the hard way.

3. Developing Great Net Sentiment Is A Must

Simply put net sentiment is how much customers like or dislike your blog, website or products. If you are liked you will get talked about a lot if you are disliked you will get talked about even more! Interacting with customers by answering questions, sharing industry news, writing articles, writing blog posts, and leaving helpful content on social media networks should build positive net sentiment. Thourgh social networking consumers have the ability to influence each other like never before in the history of marketing. If you don't have time for social media yourself you should hire someone to do it for you or miss out on reaching millions of potential customers daily! It doesn't matter what industry you are in or what product you sell, at some point in time your company will be mentioned in the social mediasphere as either a honorable company or a scoundrel.


4. Monitor Everything You Do In The Social Media Network

The monitoring process can be a little time consuming but there are many online tools to help the process along. You should monitor conversion rates, consumer interaction, trade name sentiment, forum conversations, and respond to any questions about your company or trade name on a regular basis. By tracking the conversations focusing on your trade name, you can respond to requests for information, favorable and negative comments remain active on a daily basis. Everyday have something to say to your customers and potential customers, this is what social media is all about INTERACTION! Even if they don't interact with you interact with them to find out why they are not interacting with you and fix it.

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By
Blaine W. Stevens
Global Research Team

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Generate Laser Targeted Content For Your Potential Customers!



By The Dark Sage 25th May 2008

1. Create a FAQ page on your site of guest as well as customer questions and the answers you have provided them. Believe it or not FAQ pages are actually targeted content more often than not, because other people have the same exact questions, they just never ask.

2. Surveying your online guest as well as current customers should prove to be an priceless tool. I would suggest doing this anytime you see a drop in readership or income. Ask them what information they need and the type of articles or reports they would like to see released on your web site or published in your ebooks, e-zines and blogs.

3. Take part in chat rooms associated to your targeted audience. Keep an eye on what questions people are asking and ask other people what information they're interested in attaining. You won't believe how much information you can gain from this simple research technique.

4. Take part in bulletin boards related to your targeted audience or even start your own. People always leave questions for information they are seeking, which represents a very strong indicator as to what subject matter you should write about.

5. Analyze what information is being broadcast on television news, talk shows and naturally the internet. The information being discussed in these forums are typically hot current information topics and should not be overlooked as a source of content for your website.

6. Use free web content from one of the many sites now offering free targeted content, that includes articles, RSS feeds and video. This is a very easy way to keep your content fresh without a lot of hard work. It will also help keep your guest as well as your customers coming back to your site.

7. On a regular basis check your web site guest book and if you don't have one add one to your site now! The reason for doing this is that some people will occasionally ask questions or leave comments that will assist you during creation of more targeted readership content.

8. Use the different religious along with national holidays and special events to come up with more beneficial subject matter for your readers. You could relate your content to the different sports seasons, pedigree pet shows, computer expos or anything else your readers have shown an interest in.

9. Checkout internet bookstore's as well as neighborhood brick and mortar bookstore's best sellers list for subjects related to your niche. They happen to be a very good resource for obtaining valuable subject matter as well as ideas to write your own articles, newsletters and blogs.

10. Never relate your article, e-zine or blog to a current fad that's going on in your specific industry, because fads don't last and they are usually a rip-off in some way or another. Try and keep your topics unique to the industry, maybe you have noticed something that nobody else is talking about or found a fresh niche. The topic must be interesting to your target audience or you will be wasting your time.

Reprinted with permission from the author Michael C Murdock,

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